Click here to see the Celignis Analysis Packages that determine Cellulose Content
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Click here to see the Celignis Analysis Packages that determine Hemicellulose Content
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Click here to see the Celignis Analysis Packages that determine Lignin Content
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Click here to see the Celignis Analysis Packages that determine Starch Content
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Click here to see the Celignis Analysis Packages that determine Uronic Acid Content
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Click here to see the Celignis Analysis Packages that determine Enzymatic Hydrolysis
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Click here to see the Celignis Analysis Packages that determine Ash Content
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Click here to see the Celignis Analysis Packages that determine Heating (Calorific) Value
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Ash Shrinkage Starting Temperature (SST) - This occurs when the area of the test piece of Grass ash falls below 95% of the original test piece area.
Ash Deformation Temperature (DT) - The temperature at which the first signs of rounding of the edges of the test piece occurs due to melting.
Ash Hemisphere Temperature (HT) - When the test piece of Grass ash forms a hemisphere (i.e. the height becomes equal to half the base diameter).
Ash Flow Temperature (FT) - The temperature at which the Grass ash is spread out over the supporting tile in a layer, the height of which is half of the test piece at the hemisphere temperature.
Click here to see the Celignis Analysis Packages that determine Ash Melting Behaviour
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Click here to see the Celignis Analysis Packages that determine Major and Minor Elements
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At Celignis we can provide you with crucial data on feedstock suitability for AD as well as on the composition of process residues. For example, we can determine the biomethane potential (BMP) of Grass. The BMP can be considered to be the experimental theoretical maximum amount of methane produced from a feedstock. We moniotor the volume of biogas produced allowing for a cumulative plot over time, accessed via the Celignis Database. Our BMP packages also involve routine analysis of biogas composition (biomethane, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulphide, ammonia, oxygen). We also provide detailed analysis of the digestate, the residue that remains after a sample has been digested. Our expertise in lignocellulosic analysis can allow for detailed insight regarding the fate of the different biogenic polymers during digestion.
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At Celignis we can determine the bulk density of biomass samples, including Grass, according to ISO standard 17828 (2015). This method requires the biomass to be in an appropriate form (chips or powder) for density determination.
Click here to see the Celignis Analysis Packages that determine Bulk Density
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Our lab is equipped with a Retsch AS 400 sieve shaker. It can accommodate sieves of up to 40 cm diameter, corresponding to a surface area of 1256 square centimetres. This allows us to determine the particle size distribution of a range of samples, including Grass, by following European Standard methods EN 15149- 1:2010 and EN 15149-2:2010.
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Next-generation biofuels from renewable sources have gained interest among research investigators, industrialists, and governments due to major concerns on the volatility of oil prices, climate change, and depletion of oil reserves. Biobutanol has drawn signicant attention as an alternative transportation fuel due to its superior fuel properties over ethanol. e advantages of butanol are its high energy content, better blending with gasoline, less hydroscopic nature, lower volatility, direct use in convention engines, low corrosiveness, etc. Butanol production through (acetone, butanol, and ethanol) ABE fermentation is a well-established process, but it has several drawbacks like feedstock cost, strain degeneration, product toxicity, and low product concentrations. Lignocellulosic biomass is considered as the most abundant, renewable, low-cost feedstock for biofuels. Production of butanol from lignocellulosic biomass is more complicated due to the recalcitrance of feedstock and inhibitors generated during the pretreatment and hydrolysis process. Advanced fermentation and product recovery techniques are being researched to make biobutanol industrially viable. |
Prairie cordgrass (PCG), Spartina pectinata, is considered an energy crop with potential for bioethanol production in North America. The focus of this study was to optimize enzymatic hydrolysis of PCG at higher solids loadings using a thermostable cellulase of a mutant Penicillium pinophilum ATCC 200401. A three variable, five-level central composite design of response surface methodology (RSM) was employed in a total of 20 experiments to model and evaluate the impact of pH (4.1–6.0), solids loadings (6.6%–23.4%), and enzyme loadings (6.6–23.4 FPU/g dry matter, DM) on glucose yield from a thermo-mechanically extruded PCG. The extruded PCG was first hydrolyzed with the crude P. pinophilum cellulase and then fermented to ethanol with Saccharomyces cerevisiae ATCC 24860. Although all three variables had a significant impact, the enzyme loadings proved the most significant parameter for maximizing the glucose yield. A partial cubic equation could accurately model the response surface of enzymatic hydrolysis as the analysis of variance showed a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.89. At the optimal conditions of pH of 4.5, solids loadings of 10% and enzyme loadings of 20 FPU/g DM, the enzymatic hydrolysis of pretreated PCG produced a glucose yield of 76.1% from the maximum yield which represents an increase of 15% over the non-optimized controls at the zero-level central points. The predicted results based on the RSM regression model were in good agreement with the actual experimental values. The model can present a rapid means for estimating lignocellulose conversion yields within the selected ranges. Furthermore, statistical optimization of solids and enzyme loadings of enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass may have important implications for reduced capital and operating costs of ethanol production. |
A thermophilic microbial consortium (TMC) producing hydrolytic (cellulolytic and xylanolytic) enzymes was isolated from yard waste compost following enrichment with carboxymethyl cellulose and birchwood xylan. When grown on 5% lignocellulosic substrates (corn stover and prairie cord grass) at 600 C, the thermophilic consortium produced more xylanase (up to 489 U/l on corn stover) than cellulase activity (up to 367 U/l on prairie cord grass). Except for the carboxymethyl cellulose-enriched consortium, thermo-mechanical extrusion pretreatment of these substrates had a positive effect on both activities with up to 13% and 21% increase in the xylanase and cellulase production, respectively. The optimum temperatures of the crude cellulase and xylanase were 600 C and 700 C with half-lives of 15 h and 18 h, respectively, suggesting higher thermostability for the TMC xylanase. Sodium dodecyl sulfatepolyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the crude enzyme exhibited protein bands of 25-77 kDa with multiple enzyme activities containing 3 cellulases and 3 xylanases. The substrate specificity declined in the following descending order: avicel>birchwood xylan>microcrystalline cellulose>filter paper>pine wood saw dust>carboxymethyl cellulose. The crude enzyme was 77% more active on insoluble than soluble cellulose. The Km and Vmax values were 36.49 mg/ml and 2.98 U/mg protein on avicel (cellulase), and 22.25 mg/ml and 2.09 U/mg protein, on birchwood xylan (xylanase). A total of 50 TMC isolates were screened for cellulase and xylanase secretion on agar plates. All single isolates showed significantly lower enzyme activities when compared to the thermophilic consortia. This is indicative of the strong synergistic interactions that exist within the thermophilic microbial consortium and enhance its hydrolytic capabilities. It was further demonstrated that the thermostable enzyme-generated lignocellulosic hydrolyzates can be fermented to bioethanol by a recombinant strain of Escherichia coli. This could have important implications in the enzymatic breakdown of lignocellulosic biomass for the establishment of a robust and cost-efficient process for production of cellulosic ethanol. To the best of our knowledge, this work represents the first report in literature on biochemical characterization of lignocellulose-degrading enzymes from a thermophilic microbial consortium. |
Biomass feedstock having less competition with food crops are desirable for bio-ethanol production and such resources may not be localized geographically. A distributed production strategy is therefore more suitable for feedstock like water hyacinth with a decentralized availability. In this study, we have demonstrated the suitability of this feedstock for production of fermentable sugars using cellulases produced on site. Testing of acid and alkali pretreatment methods indicated that alkali pretreatment was more efficient in making the sample susceptible to enzyme hydrolysis. Cellulase and ?-glucosidase loading and the effect of surfactants were studied and optimized to improve saccharification. Redesigning of enzyme blends resulted in an improvement of saccharification from 57% to 71%. A crude trial on fermentation of the enzymatic hydrolysate using the common baker’s yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae yielded an ethanol concentration of 4.4 g/L. |